A copy of Joey Dauben's inmate grievance against Navarro County Justice of the Peace Vicki Gray. (CLICK TO ENLARGE)
It appears Joesph “Joey” G. Dauben, publisher of the now-defunct Ellis County Observer website, is becoming almost as big of a headache for public officials from behind bars as he was when he was loose on the streets muckraking. Dauben, 31, who is in the Navarro County Jail in lieu of $200,000 bond on three charges related to alleged sexual activity with a 15-year-old male teenager four years ago, mailed us a copy of an inmate grievance he filed with the Navarro County Sheriff’s Office this week.
In the grievance, Dauben takes Navarro County Justice of the Peace Vicki Gray to task for allegedly threatening inmates with throwing away their requests for court-appointed attorneys if they dared to send her second or third requests. In the complaint, Dauben, who went for almost two months without legal representation after he declared he was indigent during his arraignment on Dec. 19 and requested a court-appointed attorney, claims he felt like her remarks were directed specifically at him, although she was addressing several inmates at once.
Dauben writes in the complaint, “Since one does not need to be a lawyer to be Justice of the Peace, and Gray was elected in 2010 for four years, she may think she is not going to be watched. However, not every inmate she arraigns, talks to or appoints counsel for is a newspaper publisher. Her comments are clearly unacceptable, and anything she or other public officials say can and will be used against them. It’s to correct, not punish. I am not filing this to exact revenge, but to teach public officials proper conduct.”
In another development, an Ellis County grand jury handed down an indictment against Dauben on Jan. 19 for “fraudulent use of identifying information.” The indictment alleges that Dauben reported on his blog on June 21 that an individual was accused of molesting children. Postings on the interactive blog allegedly encouraged violence against the accused individual. No action has been taken on the Ellis County indictment due to the pending prosecution by Navarro County.
Dauben said he is now waiting for the appointment of a court-appointed attorney in the new Ellis County case. A response is expected from him in connection with a motion by the Ellis County district attorney and the Red Oak Police Department to seize EllisCountyObserver.com, he said. The new indictment apparently arose from a raid on his home office in Henderson County last summer by law enforcement officials.
Other than to maintain his innocence, Dauben continues to decline comment on the sex abuse of a child charges that involve a teenager who is now 19, referring any questions to his lawyer, Ed Jendrzy, who was recently appointed to represent him.
In the meantime, Dauben writes that he is staying busy behind bars planning his future journalistic pursuits and learning from his experiences. He notes his “side issues erupting in the midst of my imprisonment are not solely for me, but for the other inmates (current, former, future) who need help fighting for their rights, or to simply keep public officials accountable.”
It would appear that anyone in public official-land who perhaps thought Dauben might be silenced by his imprisonment is now learning otherwise. Dauben might become more annoying to them than he ever was before if this drama continues as it has.
Priceless. Not a publisher LOL. Now defunct. I have waited YEARS to see that one!
What is he going to do – future journalistic pursuits LOL? Write a newspaper by inmates for inmates? The Prison Paper ROFLMAO!
He aint going NOOOO Where. Bet he isn’t anal retentive anymore.. Hopefully he will come to terms with his sexuality while he is in and find some prison love.
how stupid doe’s he think the law really is he’s the damn fool in jail, oh by the way have you met big LEROY yet dummy
It is becoming obvious from the absurd comments above that the powers that be in Ellis County and Navarro County are slowly becoming aware that they have a real problem on their hands that is not going to go away. Attempting to silence Mr. Dauben will turn out to be one of the biggest mistakes they ever attempted. Their actions have only caused more and more people to become aware of the corruption in Ellis and Navarro counties. Although Mr. Dauben may have to sit in county jail for a while longer, in the end, it will be the corrupt officials who put him there that will find themselves behind bars, for a much longer length of time. Ellis county government and Navarro county government are about to receive more scrutiny than they could have ever imagined, and it will not end well for them.
Wont end well for Joey, is what jailbird joey says.. To prison he will go
Mr. Dauben may very well have a legitimate complaint against the J.P. but the grievance form which he filled out is only used for jail grievances such as food/guard misconduct/etc. The S.O. has no control over the J.P., another elected official. The form will end up in the Grievance Officer’s inbox, where it will languish. There are other methods of addressing this problem but, as is his habit, Mr. Dauben is taking one with no meaning or substance.
https://www.aclutx.org/request-legal-assistance/ his close friends are all filing complaints with the ACLU on Joey’s behalf. the idea is the more filed the better the chances they will help him.
The ACLU does not represent accused child molesters. The only violation was how he violated the teen boys of this State!